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Nationwide Domain Name/Yard Sign Conspiracy

robertjmoore writes "Everywhere I go lately, I see these lawn signs that say "Single?" and then give a URL with my town's name in it. Being a huge business intelligence geek with too much time on my hands, I decided to track down who was behind them and wound up uncovering ten thousand domain names, a massively coordinated and well-funded guerilla marketing machine, and the $45 Million revenue business hiding behind it all. Hot off the presses, these are my findings."

12 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Guerrilla Marketing by apt142 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is extremely fascinating. I'm not quite sure how it becomes news for nerds. But fascinating none the less.

    1. Re:Guerrilla Marketing by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why is it news for nerds? The same reason you found it fascinating.

      Guy observes something odd related to his field of work.

      Guy notices more oddities, all related.

      Guy gets an itch to figure out what is going on, and scratches the itch.

      Guy keeps on scratching until he's completely satisfied.

      Seriously, what nerd hasn't done the same thing in their particular field of interest? Whether it's the grepping to find instances of an odd item in your logs, or statistical analysis to compare voting records by state to federal balance of payment figures, or figuring out how to make the pelvic actuators on your girl robot work properly, one thing all nerds have in common is sleuthing.

      Nerdhood, to me, is defined by inquisitiveness and a strong dedication to finding answers and increasing our knowledge. So yes, it's news for nerds, since we can all relate to the author's search for truth.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  2. missed the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think you missed the point. You were suppose to go to the URL to get a date NOT research the registration.

    1. Re:missed the point by Dekortage · · Score: 5, Funny

      This gives me an idea for a new set of yard signs: "Single? Bored? www.slashdot.org"

      --
      $nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
  3. Re:signs by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We should start a counter-campaign:

    Married?
    LincolnSwingers.com

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  4. My garbage can is full of these signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These signs appear in my neighborhood about once a week in the wee hours of Monday morning. I usually remove about 10 of these signs from my neighborhood by 8:30 am. To date I have disposed of about 250 yard signs. It is illegal to post the yard signs on my property and my fellow home owners property without our permission. Thanks to your research our lawyers will be able to send letters to the proper people now.

  5. BTW, those signs are illegal by sootman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you hate them as much as I do, visit this site for tips and contact your local code enforcement office.

    Legally, they are no different from litter. If you don't have a permit to leave something in a public place, it's nothing but trash. That said, the neanderthal assholes who post them might not be aware of that* and almost certainly won't be happy if they catch you taking them down, legally right or not, so be careful when picking up trash.

    * and I'm sure the assholes who SELL the signs never mention it, either.

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  6. Re:Well done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was going to bitch about the submitter advertising his company in the summary but after reading the article, I say that he has earned it. I didn't much care about this company but the whole detective process was quite fascinating.

    Agreed.

    What I'd like to see next is this guy taking out the "Crazy Fox" scam. Late-night TV commercials with the same video, namely a poorly-rendered CGI fox, talking about what an awesome home-based-business... yadda yadda yadda. The commercials are identical, except for a random number prefixed or suffixed to the domain name containing the string "crazyfox".

    It's obviously a pyramid scheme of some sort, but the mechanism of spamvertizing it is ultimately the same as that employed by the "randomaffiliatename"{singles|dating}.com scam. The only difference is that it uses TV commercials (which are probably the "thing" being "sold" by the people at the top of the pyramid) instead of lawn signs.

  7. Re:The "from the..." Department by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think that, quite frankly, one of the most painful issues with being single for geeks is when we have friends who constantly enjoy the pleasures of physical relationships. I, for one, have a friend who is constantly "pulling women from the bar" because "variety is the spice of life". Sure, he's always complaining to me that he will never find a good girl... But at least he's getting to have some fun in the sack.

    For us pragmatic geeks who think about consequences, consider other peoples feelings, and simultaneously have the same mammalian urges as our more risky, wreckless friends, it's clear how one can feel that being lonely is tragic. ... comming from a 24 year old virgin who has more experience writing in assembly than hacking into panties.

  8. Re:Together by asylumx · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA, it explains this (in my own words): The localized domains give the impression that this is a local shop so the perceived likelyhood of finding a match are higher.

  9. Re:It's an interesting story... by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 5, Funny

    So they work on the Scientology model?

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  10. Re:Together by raehl · · Score: 5, Funny

    $3600 is only 18 good nights out at the bar, so its relatively cheap in comparison.

    There is something wrong with either where or how much you are drinking.